Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-09-03

j nG oOsIti lily " H@F ~ $3.50
time to conquer US, and we may have
fought it back, but we were vanquished.
You say conversion is only M lmagi-
nary thing. We know better. ave
are Witnesses" There ntver was SO
great a change in our heart ard life on
any other subject as On this. People
laughed at the missionaries in NADIA
gascar because they preached ten years
without one convert; but there are
thirty-three thousand converts in Mad
agascar to-day. People laughed at
DD JUDsoN,
The Baptist missionary, because he
kept on preaching in Burmsh five years
without a single convert; but there are
twenty thousand Baptists In Burmah
to day. People laughed At DR.. Morri-
son, in China. for preaching there
seven years without a single CONVEX
sion; but there are fifteen thousand
Christians in China to-day. People
laughed at the missionaries for preach
at Tahiti for fifteen years without a
single conversion, aud ut the mission
aries for preaching in Bengal seven
teen years without a single conversion;
| yet in all those lands there are multi
tudes of Christians to-day.
But why go so-far to find evidences
of the Gospels power to save a soulP
1--WE are witnesses" We were so
| proud that no man could have humbled
us; we were SO BARD that no earthly
power could have melted us; angels Of
God were all around about is, they
could not overcome US; but one day,
perhaps at q Methodist ANXIOUS seat, or
at a Presbyterian cathechetical lecture,
or al a burial, or on horseback, a pow
err seized us, and made us get down,
and made us tremble, and made us
kneel, and made US cry for mercy, and
we tried to wrench ourselves away from
the grasp, but we could not. 1t flung
us fiat, and when we arose we were as
much changed as Gourgis, the heather.
who went into n prayer meeting with
a dagger and a gun, to disturb the
meeting and destroy 1T, but the next
day was found crying: "Oh! my great
sins! Oh! my great Saviourr' and for
eleven years preached the Gospel OF
Christ to his fellow mountaireers, the
last words on his dying lips being
Free grace!' Oh it was free grace!
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL.
There is II mar who was for ten years
"a hard drinker. The dreadful appetite
had sent down its roots around the pal
ate and the tongue, and on down unth
they were interiinked with the vitals
of body, mind and soul; but be has not
taken any stimLlants for two years.
What did thatP Not temperance socie-
ties. Not prohibition laws. Not moral
suasion. Conversion did it. why"
said one upon whom the great change
had come, "sir, | feel just as though |
were somebody else"
There is a sea captain who swore all
the way from New York to Havana,
and from Havana TO S~anfrancisco, and
when he was in port he was worse
than when he was on the sea-. What
power was it that washed his tongue
clean of ~profanities, and made him "A
ps&lm-singerP Conversion by the Holy
Spirit. There are thousands of people
in this house tonight who are no more
what they once were than u water lily
is Dightshade, or a morning lark is a
vulture. or dav is night.
Now, if | should demand that all
those people in this house who have
felt the converting power of religion
should rise, SO far from being ashamed
they would spring to their feet with
more alacrity than they ever sprang to
the dance, the tears mingting with their
exhilaralion as they cried: I'VE are
Witnesses" And if they tried to sing
the old Gospel hymn, they would break
down with emotion by the time they
got to the second line:
ASHAMED OF Jesus, that dear friend
On whom my hopes OF heaven depends
mol Wher | blush, be this my shame:
That ] NJ more revere His name"
Again, | remark that ave are wit
nesses" of the
GOSPELS POWER TO COMFORT.
When a man has trouble the world
comes in and says: Now get your
mind off this; 90 out and breathe the
fresh air; plunge deeper into business. "
What poor advice. Get your mind off
of it! when everything is upturned
with the bereavement, and everything
reminds you of what you have lost.
Get your mind off of it! They might
AS well advise you to stop thinkiug.
You cannot stop thinking, and you
cannot stop thinking in that direction.
Take a walk in the fresh air! Why,
along that very street, or that very
road, she once accompanied you. Out
of that grass-plot she pluck,d flowers,
or into that show-window she looked,
fascinated, saying: Come see the
pictures Go deeper into business!
Why, she was associate wilh all vour
business ambition, and since she has
gone you have no ambition left.
Oh, this is a clumsy world when it
tries to comfort a broken heart! can
build a Corliss engine, l can paint a
Raphaci's Madonna" | can play a
Beethoven's "Symphony" as easily as
this world can comfort a broken heart
And yet you have been ~comforted.
How was it donep Diu CHRIST come TO
you and say: Get your mind OIL this;
go out and breathe the fresh air; plunge
| deeper into business?n No. There
wa, n n;prto yrban Ho coo,a IN van